ShareChat looks to raise $200 mn; RazorPay, DailyNinja also in talks for funding

ShareChat, a regional language social networking platform run by Mohalla Tech Pvt. Ltd, is in initial talks with Chinese investor Tencent and others to raise as much as $200 million (Rs 1,420 crore), a media report said.

The Mint newspaper, citing two people familiar with the matter, said that ShareChat is seeking a valuation of $600-700 million. The company was valued around $460 million when it raised about $100 million in September last year from Shunwei Capital and other investors.

The planned fundraising comes at a time when ShareChat has been facing intense competition from Chinese rivals like ByteDance's short video app TikTok.

ShareChat's other investors include smartphone maker Xiaomi, SAIF Partners and Lightspeed Venture Partners.

Meanwhile, Bengaluru-based online payments startup Razorpay is in talks with venture capital firm Sequoia Capital and others for raising about $75-100 million (Rs 525-700 crore), The Times of India reported.

Existing investors Y Combinator, Tiger Global, Matrix Partners India and Apoletto Managers could also participate in the new round of funding, the report said.

The round could value the company around $425-$450 million, the report said, citing two people aware of the development.

In January 2018, Razorpay had raised $20 million (Rs 127 crore) in its Series B round of funding led by existing investors Tiger Global and Y Combinator. The company has raised a total of $31.5 million in external funding so far. 

In another development, milk and grocery delivery startup DailyNinja is in talks to raise $18-20 million in fresh funding, Mint reported, citing two people aware of the development. Existing investors Sequoia Capital, Matrix Partners and Saama Capital are likely to invest in the new round, the report said.

DailyNinja was founded in 2015 and operates in Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Mumbai and Pune. It plans to use the proceeds to enter new cities including Delhi-NCR. The startup competes with the likes of Milkbasket, Country Delight and Doodhwala.

The Sequoia Capital-backed company will use the funds to be raised to expand to new cities, including Delhi-NCR and scale up its business while expanding its user base from 60,000 currently to 200,000 over the next two years, the report added.

DailyNinja raised an undisclosed sum in a round led by Matrix in September last year. Previously, in June 2018, it had raised $3 million from Saama and Sequoia.